Field
The present disclosure relates to patient healthcare systems, and in particular, to connectors coupling control devices with biometric sensors (e.g., electrocardiogram electrodes).
Description of the Related Art
Through advances in information technology, modern healthcare providers can quickly and easily visualize health conditions and vital statistics for a patient. For instance, biometric sensors may detect at least one health condition including a vital statistic of a patient and generate a signal including data based on the condition. For example, biometric sensors could be used to detect health conditions in the form of heart rate data, electrocardiogram data, blood pressure data, blood sugar data, and so on for a patient. These conditions may be collected over time and presented to health care providers caring for the patient. For example, a health care provider could monitor health conditions for the patient over extended timeframes, e.g., twenty-four hours or more, to monitor the health of the patient and to identify abnormalities which may occur. The abnormalities may be observable as changes in the biometric data. The abnormalities may be used by the medical care provider to provide long term care to the patient, predict future medical events, or to diagnose medical conditions of the patient.
Biometric sensors or other measurement instruments may be directly attached to a patient's skin to detect health conditions and generate signals including data based on the health condition. The specific positions where health conditions may be detected are predetermined according to the health condition monitored and the location at the patient where the detection may practically occur. The signals generated by the biometric sensors can be communicated to a control device, which may then collect, analyze, transmit, display, and/or store the signals or alerts derived therefrom. In mobile or long-term use situations, the control device and the biometric sensor are conventionally provided in two parts: the control device and a customized, wearable patch that includes the biometric sensors and an interface to provide connectivity from the skin of the patient to the control device. The patch may, for example, be worn by the patient for several days during the time period of a medical prescription. Typically, these patches are disposable and have a limited useful life as patients often discard these patches after two to seven days of use, e.g., due to diminished contact of the biometric sensors of the patch with the skin of the patient.
There are several issues that have sometimes arisen with the use of conventional patches. For example, conventional patches can suffer from reduced or limited life of the electrodes because of limitations of the skin-contacting bonding agent. Also, some patients may experience discomfort with the patch and consequently scratch, pull at, or altogether remove the patch from the skin. These patches often include relatively expensive conductive materials (e.g., silver/silver chloride) which extend from the biometric sensors to form connective interfaces with the control device, resulting in an increased cost for the device offering. As such, new lower cost approaches are needed to enable the biometric sensors to be worn by the patient for as long as possible with minimal discomfort and maintain contact with the skin of the patient to obtain accurate data of the health condition.